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Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) => Reports & Expeditions => Topic started by: Travis Heaps on January 23, 2010, 11:10:34 PM
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Hi all, recently returned from a 5 day trip up to the Percy Island group off Central Queenland. It was myself and a mate, Isaac (the GT curse), who made the trip from Yeppoon to Stanage and then left in my Allycraft 540 CC/115 yammie loaded to the hilt - swags, food, 10 jerries of spare fuel, 7 outfits, 2 eskies, a kayak and other associated paraphenalia...in fact everything but a can opener ;)
The day we left it was forecast to be blowing 15-20knots with a patch of 25's coming through later. We left and it wouldn't have been even 15 and the going was ok, and we both made that remark - out loud ::) The weather gods obviously heard us and turned it on - from then on (about half way to Marble) it blew a solid 20 with patches of 25, against a new moon size tide running out and swells of 2m+ rolling through...all in all it was a nightmare trip to South Percy. We eventually arrived - I beached the boat at the first beach we came across, stumbled up to the first shady casuarina and fell asleep on the sand - it was a bit of a mission really and I felt pretty crook by the end, not from sea sickness but I genuinely think it was from the amount of seawater I swallowed just from copping the spray over the gunwhales straight into the face. Isaac did the same but we eventually came good, set up camp and rigged up.
We had a quick land based session that evening for no luck and returned to camp to wait till around 10pm so we could re-float and anchor the boat. For the remainder of the trip we used the kayak for anchoring duties and found it invaluable up here with the big tides...if you don't have it it's either beach and re-float at often awful times or have long distance swims to and from the boat - erk, not for me in these waters.
Before getting into the fishing some background - I usually have no worries getting new comers onto a GT but Isaac had been out chasing them with me for 6 days before this trip and still had not caught one. This hadn't stopped him heading to FishHead and stocking up a full outfit and all the trimmings though so there some pressure to get him onto a fish this trip! :D
The next few days we snagged some good weather but struggled to get solid hook-ups. I would say we saw/had follows from 8-10 GT's per day at least but all up managed just 6 solid hook-ups in 3 days popping. Of these 6 we dropped the hooks on 2, landed 3 and got absolutely positively destroyed on the other :D. Isaacs curse breaker was just a baby at maybe 5kg or so and was landed within the first few casts of the trip, at least it took some pressure off! The next fish landed was a 22-23kg model landed by me and the last landed fish a 15kg or so model by Isaac again - curse properly broken! The fish that did me was pretty solid - i'd say high 30's but it was hooked in treachorous ground and just powered straight to the bottom...I was never even close to being in the fight :D It's actually the first time i've been dusted and lost a lure like that - dammit :D
The rest of the trip we spent flicking metal slugs and some SP's around. We had a bunch of fun doing this catching mackeral, tuna, trout and a bunch of ooglies :D The other highlights were the scenery and our lush camp food, baked trout and thai peanut rice, self saucing chocoate pudding and custard, cheesecake, baked sweetlip and pad thai, pancakes...we certainly didn't go hungry :)
All in all it was a great trip and i'll be doing it again for sure. This is the second time we've fished this area on these particular tides (coincidence) and we'll try a different phase next time I think, try and find the GT's when they are a bit more aggressive. Lures that caught GT's were a Cubera and Ebipops. Best part though - Isaac is no longer The Curse and we should get amongst them from now on in!
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Nice one mate,plenty of fuel u got there!!
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Nice one mate,plenty of fuel u got there!!
Yeah but in the end not enough!
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Hey Travis
Well done. !ITs an awesome bit of country up there . How was the road in after all the rain and traffic . Regards Vic
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Hey Travis
Well done. !ITs an awesome bit of country up there . How was the road in after all the rain and traffic . Regards Vic
2.25hrs Bruce Highway to Stanage, taking it pretty easy. They had just graded the start section fortunately. Still had a few big hits and there was some corrugations but all in all it was an ok trip, still glad I had new springs and tyres on the trailer. I think you're doing yourself a diservice by doing it faster - it's nice scenery all the way up just about :)
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Come on Travis, spill the beans, how many did you really catch.
Nah just joking mate, bad luck on the GT front but its still a great adventure. Nice way to spend the week. Bets working.
Sound like the trip out wasn't much fun. I'm glad we had a boat like Steve's. Makes me thing twice about taking my 5m Seafarer Vamp up that way. Still there's plenty of spots closer to Stanage that can produce a few fish.
Regards Tony
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Come on Travis, spill the beans, how many did you really catch.
Nah just joking mate, bad luck on the GT front but its still a great adventure. Nice way to spend the week. Bets working.
Sound like the trip out wasn't much fun. I'm glad we had a boat like Steve's. Makes me thing twice about taking my 5m Seafarer Vamp up that way. Still there's plenty of spots closer to Stanage that can produce a few fish.
Regards Tony
Trip out was average to say the least Tony :D All in all it comes down to the weather, if we'd been patient and waited till Sunday then there would have been nothing to complain about at all.
Wish we did have more GT photos to add! Always next time :)
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hi travis ...
well done on your trip .. never mind hope next one will be better due to weather god ..
hmmm maybe you need my mussles to rise more for you ya :-X ;D
wow that a lot of fuel but still not enought oh dear look like it need around 500L of fuel to do the job ???.
thank,s for sharing with us on few info over there ...
hey pm sent to you .
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Great report.
Good to see curse broken, thats all that counts!
Cheers
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Hey Trav,
Issac told me you were posting photo's up so i thought i would sign up and have a look. It looks like you had some fun! Let me know when you coming down this way and we'll go out in the bay.
Cheers Nick :)
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Hey Trav,
Issac told me you were posting photo's up so i thought i would sign up and have a look. It looks like you had some fun! Let me know when you coming down this way and we'll go out in the bay.
Cheers Nick :)
hey Nick - suprised to see you around these parts! Might be down next break, unsure if it will be on a weekend though, will let you know. Full album of photos up on facebook...
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Nice work and good report Travis, was interesting seeing all the extra gear you needed to take,
looking at doing a father son trip there in the middle of the year, gave me some ideas really
like the kayak idea
cheers John
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top report trav.. looks like a great place, that big one that got away is just telling you to come back another time and have a crack.
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Travis,
Great report, man you put in some effort....so when do you get the bigger boat???
Down my way, Nannies A+ GT's C-....only been out twice since Christmas
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Travis,
Great report, man you put in some effort....so when do you get the bigger boat???
Ahh Graham - so close to a new boat....i've been shopping forever - i'd actually be keen to hear people reccomendations - 6.5-7.5m glass centre console or centrecab. Contender 23T = ultimate but $$$, was sold on the Hooker 6.7m pro fisherman but recently saw the Commodore Marine 685 Couta from WA, looks damn nice. Would be so nice, 4 stroke and bigger tanks equals longer range, fuel/water/eskies all concealed in tanks off the deck, nicer, drier ride - don't get me started :D
Down my way, Nannies A+ GT's C-....only been out twice since Christmas
Haven't been out down here since chrissy. Warwick has though and done ok bottom bashing, not chased GT's though. They went out the Ferns the other day and counted 14 trawlers :o
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Hey Travis, good one mate. The A frame just blew our minds when we were there. Worth a trip out just to hang out there for a few days I reckon - we're too busy popping though hey.
Is that the little spit on the eastern end of Pine Islet your walking on in that pic? We caught a few good gts around there one morning.
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Hey Travis, good one mate. The A frame just blew our minds when we were there. Worth a trip out just to hang out there for a few days I reckon - we're too busy popping though hey.
Is that the little spit on the eastern end of Pine Islet your walking on in that pic? We caught a few good gts around there one morning.
Yeah that's the one Steve, some shallow territory around there but it did look mighty fishy. The A Frame was awesome, easy to while away some time just wandering around looking at all the name plates. I didn't realise the homestead was so far away from the A frame, I wanted to drop up and say hi to the caretakers...called them on the radio and said so only to be told "to bring your water bottle, it's hot and it's over 3km up the hill"....."romeo that, ahem, cough, rightio, ok - we might, ahem, see you later then, cough" :D
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Well It's time for me to drop my 2c on this trip!
Day 1. After the traditional late night packing the boat we rose a sparrow's to launch the Hilux and boat from the house driveway onto the road. Easy done.
Like Trav mentioned the road out to Stanage wasn't too bad, but exercise caution when towing as there were a few monster holes here and there. Stay away from the local horses - if you stop to pat them they will steal things from the back of the Ute - one friendly steed refused to get it's snout out of the Ute till the boat pushed him away!
Arriving at Stanage what a treat. We'd called ahead so knew the store had plenty of fuel in stock, probably worth doing if your fuelling up with large volumes. The boat storage/tackle shop even had the hatchet I was chasing for the bargain price of $9.00! We managed to stop ourselves from buying lures...
Pack... Chat to Coast Guard... Launch... Punch out to Marble... Insert Trav's comments on weather here... bleep bleep bleep... With Trav's boat someone is always on the wet side... Thankfully that was Trav...
Arrive... Set up camp... Fruitless fishing session really just to get gear ready... Out..
Day 2. My first GT - thankyou God because I have been chasing that elusive fish for over a year by that time. Including one 5 day trip with zero GT! It was only a lightweight but we pulled him out of a textbook location with textbook technique - success.
TBC...